


The Memory Remains

by Dextrousleftie



Category: Wolf's Rain
Genre: Anal Sex, Bondage, Dancing, Love, Lust, M/M, Memory Loss, Oral Sex, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:17:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8984965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dextrousleftie/pseuds/Dextrousleftie
Summary: Tsume and Darcia meet again in the new world, with no memory of each other. The two men are drawn to each other strongly. Will they remember where they met before? And will they let the past affect their future together?





	1. Chapter 1

Tsume had no memory. In the new world, all of his recollections of the old were lost. Here, now, he was just a man. He had no knowledge of ever being a wolf, of running alone over a snowfield in absolute joy of his own muscles. He did not remember his makeshift pack, not even the one who was fang to his claw. His friends, his family, even the flower girl - in the waking hours, his amnesia was complete.

Not so when he slept. In dreams, he saw flashes of another world. A dying world, where his kind were hunted and killed by the Nobles to preserve the coming of their own ‘Paradise’. He saw a boy with eyes the color of an ocean, whose heart burned with a fanatical dream. He saw a laughing, round-faced youngster with a collar around his neck, and a mere stripling with russet-colored hair and a gentle spirit. He saw a girl with pink hair and eyes, a sad, living flower with the form of a human girl, who loved the moonlight, and was as graceful a song. He saw an old man, full of hate, who hunted his kind for vengeance, and a girl with liquid-blue eyes who loved the old man. He saw a human couple, a gentle man and a spirited woman, who shared his kind’s dream and died for it. But when he awoke from these dreams, he could never remember anything about them. All he knew was that when he woke, tangled in his sheets, that he always did so with a feeling of deep sadness and loss.

His nights were ordinary. He rode his bike to his job at the bar where he worked as a bouncer. While he wasn’t the biggest man that the owner had ever employed, he was the scariest. There was a savage, feral quality to the silver-haired man that made many a drunk lose his alcohol-induced belligerence very quickly. One look in his light-golden eyes, and many a patron had pissed themselves in sheer fear. He seldom had to actually throw anybody out; most left voluntarily. When he did, he tossed around men bigger than himself as though they weighed nothing. Bones broke and blood flowed whenever Tsume took action. But it was just that kind of bar - no one ever called the police and charged him with brutality, and often the same person would come back again even after Tsume had ‘discouraged’ him. Everyone accepted that in a violent part of town, the one who came out on top was the one that was the most violent.

Tsume never drank himself. He’d seen far too much of the drunken, idiot behavior caused in the Bloody Hand by alcohol to ever feel the need to get drunk himself. Besides, he didn’t like the smell, let alone the taste. It always made his nose wrinkle for some reason, and he shied away from it instinctively. The wolf spirit within him still held some sway, and the wolf had no use for such a human indulgence.

After work, he spent the rest of his nights in the dance clubs. Swaying to the pounding, driving music, letting his hips swivel as he lost himself in it, Tsume forgot himself for awhile. His animal grace and sensuality meant he was never short of partners, male or female. Sometimes people would just stand and watch him, the lean, leather-clad form simulating sex to the beat of a pounding bass line. But always, no matter how many people surrounded him in these places, Tsume was always alone.

Some nights, he took one of the skimpily-clad young things home with him to his small, neat apartment. There they’d have passionate, animal sex in his bed, sweating bodies driving against one another, while Tsume raked his fingernails down a sweating back, or bit savagely at his partner’s neck or shoulders. Always, boy or girl, the willing bed mate would want another night with him. But he never took the same person home with him twice, and many a dejected one-night stand would watch with sad eyes as he left one of the clubs with someone new.

Tsume knew that he was looking for something. Something that he’d lost, and couldn’t seem to find again. But what that thing was, he just didn’t know. It haunted him, the feeling of missing a part of himself, and sometimes the sadness in his distant eyes was the lonely echo of a wolf howling mournfully to the moon in his grief. Most nights, he didn’t sleep. The bar closed at two, and he spent the rest of the night at the clubs. Only when dawn was breaking would he return home, and curl up in his bed, to dream of what he had forgotten.

On the nights he had off from his job, he went up to the rooftop of his building and watched the moon. In all its phases, it called to him. When it was full, it seemed to swell and grow larger until it invaded his eyes, his heart, his very being. Child of the moon, sometimes he felt phantom fur rippling in the night wind. He had an overwhelming urge to throw his head back and howl mournfully to his silver Moon Mother, but the few times he’d actually given into that urge the people in his building had complained about the noise. So he held his tongue now and only looked up at the moon’s radiance with wistful eyes.

One night, when he entered one of his favorite clubs, ironically called The Silver Moon, he saw a stranger standing at the long, curved chrome bar. The man was meditating over the drink in his hand, his head bent. He was tall, with a sweep of raven-black hair that fell down his back in a wave. His profile was as sad and haunted as Tsume’s sometimes became, as though he’d seen every grief in the world and mourned for every being in it. Tsume felt strangely attracted to him, so he drifted over to the bar to get a better look at him.

The man had already attracted a fair share of admirers. Up close, Tsume could see that he was beautiful. He had a proud, fine-boned face, with a well-shaped mouth and high cheekbones. There was an arch to his fine black eyebrows, and his hands were elegant and long-fingered. They grasped the glass he held lightly, idly caressing its smooth cool surface with an unconscious grace. He wore all black, not leather but silk and denim. His shirt had a high collar, and closed at the front with a silver clasp, and the black jeans fit him like a second skin. There was a belt made of very fine silver chain around his slim waist. A silver earring dangled from his right ear, the ear that Tsume could see. It was shaped like a fang, and Tsume found himself fascinated by its glittering sway.

As though he could feel Tsume’s eyes on him, the man turned his head. Their eyes locked, and Tsume felt a strange surge of recognition. He had never seen this man before - but he knew him, just the same. He met the man’s weird eyes - one a deep, rich, blue-purple, the other a gold darker than Tsume’s own, and that recognition passed between them like a thunderbolt. 'I know you', each thought in his head. 'How do I know you?'

“Tsume!” the bartender greeted him. ”I know you’re not drinking. You want your usual?”

Tsume nodded silently, and the man got him a mineral water from the small refrigerator under the bar. The stranger who was not a stranger had looked away when the bartender spoke to him, and was gazing our over the dance floor as though to find answers to his questions in those swaying, writhing bodies. Tsume looked at the back of his head, and wondered if he should try to talk to the black-haired stranger. Maybe at least find out why he seemed so familiar? But there was a distinct feeling of retreat and ‘keep away’ coming from the man, so strongly that none of the other clubbers drooling over him had made any move to try to talk to him, either.

Tsume opened his bottle of mineral water and sipped at it. He considered going onto the dance floor, but so far he hadn’t seen anyone he wanted to dance with. Except perhaps for the tall, beautiful, stranger who fascinated him so for some reason, and it was obvious that the man hadn’t come here to dance. Why he’d come to a dance club without ever intending to dance was anyone’s guess, but Tsume had seen stranger things. So he stood leaning up against the bar, wondering if he should go home, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Tsume!” cried a voice cheerfully. Tsume smiled a little as he turned to speak with the slender, elegant figure of one of his few friends, Tagger. Tagger was a drag queen (although not a transsexual, as Tsume well knew), and the gown he was wearing tonight was a red sheath with a thigh-length slit in it. Tagger was prettier than half of the real females in the joint, with his long mink-brown hair and pretty, pixyish face. He had big brown eyes that were dusted with purple eye shadow, and his white shoulders were dusted with golden glitter. His mouth was outlined in a deep plum shade of lipstick, and those lips smiled widely at Tsume.

He waved a finger that ended in a long purple nail at Tsume. “My dear, have you been avoiding me?” he asked sternly, pouting a little at his tall friend.

Tsume laughed quietly. “OF course I haven’t,” he said truthfully.

Tagger looked pleased. He stroked Tsume’s arm affectionately, a gesture that Tsume allowed only from him. Tagger had once been one of those disappointed one-night stands, but he’d gotten over his pique over Tsume’s callousness and they’d somehow formed a strong friendship. Tsume didn’t always understand it, but he enjoyed Tagger’s company just the same. Tagger, for his part, didn’t let himself brood over Tsume’s apparent heartlessness. He’d moved on briskly to his next conquest, and only once in awhile let himself feel a pang of sadness for his friend’s loneliness. How he wished that Tsume could find someone to make him happy.

“And how are you tonight, darling?” Tagger enquired, sipping at the cocktail he held in his other hand delicately.

Tsume shrugged. Involuntarily his eyes were drawn to the still turned back of the stranger standing a few feet away from him. Tagger caught his look, and turned to see what had drawn his eye. He saw the back of someone’s head, a tall someone with a mass of dark hair flowing down his back. He was instantly curious to see the front of this person. So he took the initiative and dumped the rest of his cocktail all over the floor and the backs of the stranger’s shoes.

“Oopsy,” he cried rather theatrically, putting a hand to his mouth in an affected gesture of remorse. “I’m so terribly sorry. How clumsy of me. Ohh, my…” he trailed off as the person turned around and he got a good look at the porcelain perfection of the man’s features, and the exotic, dual-colored eyes. The strange frowned at him coldly, and Tagger felt a small frisson of fear run down his spine.

Tsume put his hand on Tagger’s shoulder reassuringly, and gave the familiar stranger the look of an alpha male in full protective mode. There was a warning in his pale-gold eyes, a look that recalled the wolf he had been, and the man let his own eyes go half-lidded as he answered the challenge in Tsume’s stare. The two males stood with their eyes locked, and Tsume felt a growl begin the back of his throat.

Tagger felt the air become rather heavy. Caught between the two bristling males, he felt like a steak being fought over by two feral dogs. Not that he would have minded being either one's piece of meat, mind you, but he knew that he wasn’t really the thing that they were contending over. Their battle of wills was personal and private, and even more fierce because it was fought silently. He could feel Tsume’s body vibrating behind him with the snarls locked in his throat, and it made him shiver. Would the two men get into a fight? If they did, Tagger suspected morbidly that one of them wouldn’t walk away from it.

But the contest ended as quickly as it had begun. The stranger looked away disdainfully, signaling not his surrender but a temporary cessation of hostilities. Tsume relaxed, and Tagger felt the hand on his shoulder begin to move in a soothing pat that meant very little except as a reassurance to him. He sighed in relief, as the tall man turned away altogether, and gave them his back once again. 'Remind me not to ever go poking at such a hornets nest again!' Tagger thought ruefully.

Tsume, sensing his friend’s continuing unease, took Tagger’s arm and drew him out on the dance floor. “Dance with me,” he urged Tagger, letting his hips begin to rock in that oldest, most primal of rhythms. Tagger started swaying as well, flowing sinuously in place like a serpent. They made a striking couple, and many people turned to stare as the two men forgot themselves in the music. It was a sexy display that left many in the crowd hot and bothered, and when it was over they were both swamped with attention the minute they stepped back off the floor.

Tagger happily accepted the attention, flirting outrageously with the small circle of handsome men who’d formed around him. Most knew he was a gay man, not a woman, although there were a few who were oblivious. Tagger flirted with them as well, on the principle that if he could lure a few more straight men over to his side of the fence it was no bad thing at all.

Tsume rejected his own flock of admirers, making his way through the crowd back to the bar. He became aware that the tall stranger was watching him, weighing him with his cool, mysterious parti-colored gaze. He stopped in his tracks and met that look head on once again, this time not with challenge but with a cool look of judgment of his own. They measured each other, and at last the man made a ‘come here’ motion with his head. Tsume could have refused, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He made his way over to the stranger and leaned against the bar next to him.

The man spoke in a deep, rich voice that sounded as though he were singing while he was speaking. “You dance very well,” he said.

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Tsume replied.

“I, however, have not,” the stranger said in a precise sort of way. “This is the first time that I’ve come to one of these places. It’s not quite what I expected. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Why did you come, if you don’t intend to dance?” Tsume asked.

“Curiosity, I imagine,” he turned his head a bit and looked at Tsume out of the deep-gold eye. “I presume you felt the same sense of recognition that I did? As though we know each other from somewhere? Some other place or time?”

Tsume nodded. “The minute I saw you I knew you,” he said. “I just can’t remember from where.”

“Memory is a strange thing,” the man observed. “Science knows so much about the way the brain works, yet so little at the same time.”

Tsume shook his head. He distrusted science and scientists, doctors and laboratories for reasons he couldn’t name. “What are you called?” he heard the man ask.

“Tsume.”

“I am Darcia.”

“Is that your first name or your last?”

“Both. I had another name once, but I’ve chosen to forgo it. And what of you? Are you just ‘Tsume’, or have you another name that you go by?”

“For official purposes, like tax forms, I use the last name Lupar. But I don’t really have another name. I’m just Tsume.”

“ ‘Claw’. So concise and to the point. No wasted syllables. How gratifying,” the man called Darcia sipped his drink, and for some strange reason Tsume found himself watching that elegant white throat swallow.

It wasn’t precisely a feeling of desire washing over Tsume. It was more like a hunger, a need to know more about this man. Maybe, if he came to know him, he’d remember where and when he’d known him from before. And there was a peculiar feeling of having discovered one who was of his own kind, who could understand the strange urges that overcame him sometimes. Darcia seemed to feel something similar, for he set his empty glass down on the bar decisively and turned to pin Tsume with the full force of his peculiar eyes. “Let us leave this place,” he said with that oddly formal way he had of speaking. “Together," he added.

Tsume nodded. He followed as Darcia made his way through the crowd toward the exit. Tagger, busy with a lovely specimen at a table off to the side, looked up in time to see the two men leaving the club together. His jaw dropped, and he blinked in disbelief. Had he just seen what he thought he’d seen? Why was Tsume leaving with that dangerous creature? Still, Tsume was a dangerous creature in his own right and could take care of himself. Tagger turned back to his new friend and sent a silent thought Tsume’s way. 'Take care, my friend,' he thought. 'Dangerous you might be, but I think you’ve met your match in that man.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsume teaches Darcia lessens in control, and losing control, as well. Just for you JB, because you asked. :)

Outside the club in the parking lot, Darcia paused and turned to Tsume. “Which vehicle is yours?”

Tsume pointed to a sleek, gleaming, black motorcycle. Darcia nodded. “Follow me,” he said.

He got into a low-slung, dark-blue sports car. The engine of the car started with a purr. He pulled out of the parking lot with Tsume’s bike on his tail. There wasn’t much traffic this late at night, so Tsume easily kept pace with the car. Darcia led him to one of the most upscale neighborhoods in the city, where all of the houses had high walls, gates, and security cameras. He stopped in front of a set of tall, black, wrought-iron gates, and used a remote device to open the gates without leaving his car.

The gates slid smoothly open, and he drove forward toward a house set back on the property, behind the dark bulk of some tall trees. Tsume rode up the curved drive to where Darcia had stopped his vehicle in front of a large, elegant stone mansion. The dark-haired man got out of his car, and turned to watch Tsume stop his bike beside the rear of his car. Tsume put down the kickstand and removed his helmet.

He turned his head to look up at the vast house. It was bigger than his entire apartment building. “This all yours?” he asked Darcia curiously.

The well-formed mouth curved up on one side, in a coolly bitter smile. “Oh, yes. I’m very rich.” He said it as though it were an enormous burden. 

Tsume cocked his head to the side a little in puzzlement. “You sound unhappy. Most people would kill to be richm” he commented.

Darcia sighed. “Most people are not wealthy, so they do not understand what it is likem” he replied. “They believe that if they just had more money, their lives would be perfect. But money often creates more problems than it solves. The more you have, the happier people assume you must be. How wrong they are,” he finished rather sadly, and his peculiar mismatched eyes seemed to retreat somewhere far away.

“Everybody’s unhappy about something,” Tsume observed disinterestedly. “I expect, in your case, if it weren’t money it’d probably be something else.”

Darcia blinked. A strange, arrested look crossed his face, and after a moment he laughed softly. “I knew that you would be an interesting conversationalist,” he remarked. “Won’t you come inside?”

Tsume shrugged. He hung his helmet on his bike, and followed Darcia up to the impressive front door of the house. The door had an alarm system on it, which Darcia disengaged, before he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Inside, they walked across what seemed to be like acres of marble in the seemingly endless foyer. Darcia led the way to a set of carved wooden doors, sliding them open to reveal a library/study full of antiques and with shelves full of books that rose on all sides almost to the ceiling. Darcia indicated that Tsume should sit in one of the large leather wing chairs that flanked an enormous fireplace. A small fire threw a soft light and warmth into the room. Tsume found himself staring into the heart of it, hypnotized. It called to some primal part of himself, an ancient song without words.

“Would you like a drink?” enquired Darcia, going over to a small bar to pour himself some brandy into a cut glass tumbler.

Tsume shook his head. “I don’t drink.”

Darcia glanced briefly at him over his shoulder. “Don’t you? Why not?”

“I don’t like the taste of alcohol. Nor the smell, for that matter.”

“How peculiar. What would you like, then?”

“Mineral water, if you have it.”

“Of course.” He fetched a bottle of it from the tiny refrigerator under the bar, and carried it over to hand it to Tsume. He sank down gracefully into the other wing chair, crossed one leg over the other, and sipped at his drink.

Tsume opened the bottle and drank some of the water. He stared at Darcia’s profile as he did so, still trying to remember when and where he had known this enigmatic man. He was just so familiar…

“I’m not sure that staring at me will help you remember,” Darcia commented without turning his head.

“It can’t hurt,” Tsume replied.

“True. Nothing else that I’ve tried has helped to bring my memories back.”

“Have you lost other memories?” Tsume asked in surprise.

Now Darcia did turn his head, to look Tsume coolly in the eye. “Haven’t you?”

Taken aback, Tsume started to reply in the negative. But something stopped him. Vague recollections of dreams, and longings for people and places that were gone. Of knowing that there was something missing from his life…

Darcia nodded at his expression. “I see that you have. I take it you have no memories at all of the past, just a feeling of - not belonging where you are, perhaps?”

Tsume drew in a sharp breath. Darcia’s elegant face registered a look of profound sadness. It was a return to the soul deep grief that Tsume had seen on his face when he first saw Darcia in the Silver Moon. “I remember a bit,” he said mournfully. “Just pieces really - a beautiful woman, whom I loved more than life itself. A woman who was - a flower? Strange, I know, but that is one of the things that I recall. And a floating fortress in the sky, moving over the face of a dying world. And I remember…wolf song,” he stopped, and Tsume felt his heart give a sick lurch. “Wolves, howling somewhere far below. How I longed to join them, even as I sought to destroy them. Those memories make no sense to me.” He put up a long-fingered hand to rub at his temple. “But they persist. So I must assume that somewhere, sometime, they were real. That events took place to make them in my head. Either that, or I am stark, raving mad.” He smiled sardonically. “Either is a possibility.”

Tsume felt his heart thundering in his chest. His breath rasped in and out, until he was nearly hyperventilating. Darcia’s words had called up answering images within him -forgotten memories stirred in his brain, and he felt on the verge of the revelation that he’d been searching for for a long time now…

But it slipped away. At the last moment, the memories fled away from his touch. He lost them, and he wanted to howl his grief and agony to the skies. He came back to reality with a thump to find himself still sitting in the chair in Darcia’s study. The elegant man was watching him closely.

“Did you recall anything?" Darcia asked softly.

Tsume growled in frustration. “No, and I was so close!”

“They will come back to you in time, I think,” Darcia replied compassionately. Tsume glanced at him in surprise. Compassion seemed incongruous in this proud, cold man.

Darcia smiled frigidly at Tsume’s expression. “Even men such as I can feel,” he said. “Perhaps too much, actually. It would be simpler for me if I could feel nothing. I might be…happier. Or at least more content with my lot.”

Tsume was even more perplexed than ever by this man. He seemed a study in contradictions. Yet Tsume was drawn inexorably to him to him, for his instincts said that here was the key to finding what he had lost. If only he could figure out how.

For his part, Darcia felt an almost clinically-detached curiosity about Tsume. It wasn’t the fact that he felt he knew this leather-clad stranger. In Tsume’s light-gold eyes he glimpsed something that was missing within himself. Not memories, but some basic emotion or understanding that he lacked. Perhaps it was that, for all his questions, Tsume seemed whole. Darcia was too often fractured, pulled in two diametrically opposite directions by his very nature. He longed for that division within himself to end, to find a way to reconcile the two natures that were constantly at war in his psyche.

Perhaps they could give each other what each lacked in himself, Darcia mused. At the least, it would be an interesting experiment. If it failed, what had either of them really lost?

“If you like, you could stay here tonight,” he said. Tsume’s eyes narrowed, and Darcia shook his head. “You need not look so suspicious,” he remarked. “There are a dozen guest rooms upstairs. You may pick any of them. I did not intend the offer as any kind of come on.”

Tsume cocked his head. “Why not?” he asked curiously.

Darcia blinked in surprise. “I - do not sleep with men,” he said.

Tsume considered this. “Maybe you should try it once,” he said.

Darcia was unsure how to answer this somewhat startling statement. “Are you trying to say that you wish to have sex with me?" he asked, studying Tsume with a kind of detached curiosity.

Tsume shrugged. “You’re attractive. I wouldn’t mind fucking you,” he said bluntly.

Darcia raised his brows. “How could I ever resist such a romantic statement?” he asked dryly.

Tsume shook his head. “I don’t do flowers, hand holding, or candlelight dinners,” he said. “I’m not going to try to sweep you off your feet. I’m just offering to fuck you, not date you.”

“How charming,” Darcia drawled. “I’m breathless with anticipation.”

“Take it or leave it,” Tsume replied caustically. “But I think that you want to know what it’s like. I bet that I could make you like it.” He made a taunting gesture in Darcia’s direction.

“Such confidence,” Darcia steepled his fingers, as he considered the man before him. There was an animal sensuality in Tsume that drew him strongly. The silver-haired man’s virile, savage personality was so dichotomous to his own cool, detached one that it stirred strange emotions within him. He ran his eyes over Tsume’s long, lean body, clad in black leather, a body that promised pleasure. Should he take him up on that promise?

Tsume put one hand on a lean hip, and stared challengingly into Darcia’s mismatched eyes. “If you’re afraid, just tell me. I’ll drop the subject.”

Darcia refused to be ruffled by his words. “It is not fear that makes me hesitate,” he replied calmly.

Tsume’s lip curled. “Then what?” he asked. “If you’re not afraid, why not try it just once?”

“Maybe because I’m not sexually attracted to men?”

“Maybe. But I think that you are.”

“Do you? Why? Have I given any sign tonight that I’m attracted to you?”

Tsume nodded. “Your body language says that you are. And the way you look at me. It’s not what you say, but how you act. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading people, knowing who wants to sleep with me and who doesn’t. You do.”

“Interesting,” Darcia remarked. “Perhaps you’re right. But I’m still not sure that that is a good enough reason for me to actually have sex with you.”

Tsume tilted his head a bit to the side. “Curiosity and attraction. Sounds like a pair of good reasons,” he said.

Darcia was a bit surprised by his own hesitancy. He should either just refuse Tsume’s offer outright, or take him up on it. Perhaps, he mused, I really am a bit apprehensive? Do I want this, but am too afraid to take up his challenge? He didn’t care for that thought at all. There were things that he lacked, but courage was not one of them.

Tsume wanted to laugh as he saw how deep in thought Darcia was. Trust this cold, self-contained man to try to analyze his own sexual attraction for another person. Sex was sex, the wolf in Tsume thought. You either do it or you don’t. There’s nothing complex about it.

Darcia stirred at last. He looked up at Tsume, his elegant face almost blank. “Very well,” he said quietly. “I accept your proposal.”

Tsume wanted to point out that his obvious lack of enthusiasm wasn’t a huge turn on for him. But he refrained, for his instincts told him that this man liked to be in control of both himself, and the situation, at all times. Sex was, basically, a loss of control that he’d find distasteful, and perhaps even frightening. Tsume suspected that one of the reasons that he’d only slept with women before this was because he’d always be the dominant partner. The woman received what the man gave. To be the receiver would be a harder role for Darcia to play. But Tsume intended to make sure that he enjoyed it thoroughly. He’d break that cold control, and make the beautiful man cry out in pleasure like the lowest whore.

Darcia rose to his feet. “Shall we go up to my bedroom?” he asked, already trying to take charge of the situation. Tsume’s eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter as he nodded. Let Darcia be in charge for now. That wouldn’t last long, not long, at all.

Darcia led the way out of the study, and up the curving sweep of the elegant staircase to the second floor. The Master Suite was at the end of a hallway lined with doors. A pair of doors with roses and climbing vines carved onto them, opened at Darcia’s touch, and Tsume followed him into a huge room full of heavy antique furniture. The bed was an enormous four poster with a thick, red bedspread. Tsume considered this monstrosity with interest, as Darcia stopped near it. “You actually sleep in that?” he asked.

“Of course,” Darcia replied.

“Doesn’t look very comfortable,” Tsume strolled across the room with his hands in his pockets.

“It suits me,” Darcia said coldly.

“Actually, that doesn’t surprise me,” Tsume remarked sardonically.

Darcia sighed. “Shouldn’t we just get this over with?” he said, crossing his arms over his chest in an unconsciously protective gesture.

“ ‘Get this over with’,” mused Tsume, shaking his head. “That’s not a huge turn on, you know.”

Darcia frowned. “What do you expect me to do? A strip tease? Bat my eyelids at you? Flirt?”

“Any or all of those things would do,” Tsume said in amusement. “But never mind. Just take your clothes off.”

Darcia froze. He stared at Tsume with something like a spark of fear in his parti-colored eyes. Tsume sighed. “I can’t fuck you through your clothes,” he pointed out, not ungently. “Unless you don’t want this. I’ll leave now if you don’t.”

A flash of anger went through the mismatched eyes, and Darcia reached up to pull off the silver pin holding the collar of his black silk shirt closed. He unbuttoned the shirt, never hesitating. He pulled it off and laid it neatly over the chest that sat at the foot of the bed. He took a deep breath and unfastened the thin chain at his waist, pulling it free and dropping it on the floor. He bent to remove the calf-high black leather boots on his feet, his movements precise and graceful. Tsume enjoyed the sight of his pale, porcelain skin, the roll of the long, lean muscles in his back.

Stepping out of the boots, Darcia put his hands down and undid the snap at the front of his black jeans. Tsume’s mouth quirked. He didn’t point out to the uptight man that he wouldn’t have found a strip tease any more erotic than this slow, nervous undressing. Darcia’s long, raven black hair fell in front of his face as he unzipped the jeans and pushed them down his lean hips. He bent down and pulled them from his legs, then straightened up and neatly folded the jeans before placing them on top of the chest, as well.

He stood for a moment with his back to Tsume, gathering himself. Tsume ran his eyes over the long pale back, the fall of silky hair that reached nearly to his ass, and the perfectly-shaped muscular buttocks. Leanly muscled legs seemed to go on forever, all of it covered with that pale, perfect skin. The back view was fabulous. He made no move to go toward Darcia, letting him regain his composure. He waited quietly, the wolf stalking its prey with infinite patience.

Darcia finally turned around with a squaring of his shoulders. He raised his head in a proud, defensive gesture, every inch the Noble at that moment. Tsume raked his eyes over that exquisitely beautiful body, stopping to look at the quiescent cock resting on a mat of raven-black pubic hair. Elegant and well-formed as the rest of him, and clearly showing that he felt no excitement over this situation as yet.

Tsume intended to change that soon enough. “Go and sit on the bed,” he directed Darcia, who raised a haughty eyebrow at him but quietly complied.

Tsume turned to look at the rest of the room, searching for something he could use. His eyes came to rest on a massive armoire that stood against the far wall. He walked over to it and opened it, finding dozens of expensive, hand-made suits hung neatly on hangers inside. On the door was a tie rack, which held silk ties in a dim profusion of colors. Seeing them, Tsume’s light-gold eyes took on a wicked gleam. He reached out and removed eight of the ties from the rack, draping them over his arm as he turned back to the bed.

Darcia looked at the ties draped over Tsume’s arm in puzzlement. “Is there some reason that you are collecting my neck wear?” he asked.

Tsume nodded. “Yeah. Lay down on the bed, and I’ll show you what I want them for.”

Darcia gave him a dubious look, but lay down gracefully on his back on the bedspread. Tsume came to stand over him, gazing down once again at the spectacular view. He removed two of the ties from his arm, and knotted them together. Darcia watched him, a slight wrinkling of his brow the only sign that he was somewhat confused by Tsume’s actions.

Taking this makeshift silk rope, Tsume leaned over and grasped one of Darcia’s wrists. The raven-haired man stiffened a bit when Tsume knotted the tie rope around his right wrist. But the knots weren’t too tight, and Darcia lay passively while Tsume stretched his arm above his head, and tied the other end around the upper right hand post of the bed. He pulled it tight, but not too tight, so that Darcia couldn’t move his arm much. Then he circled the bed and did the same on the other side, so that both of Darcia’s arms were stretched above his head.

Darcia grimaced. He wasn’t at all sure that he liked this situation. He liked it even less when Tsume began to bind his ankles to the lower posts. He was totally helpless, unable to move much or do anything while his limbs were restrained in this manner. He considered complaining, because an instinct told him that if he did so Tsume would release him, but that action seemed cowardly. So he turned his face away a bit, and waited with bated breath for what Tsume would do next.

Tsume looked down in satisfaction at the lovely man spread-eagled on the bed before him. Now Darcia would be unable to maintain any control at all. Tsume was entirely in charge. He reached up and began to undo the buckles on his leather clothes, pulling them off of himself slowly.

Darcia couldn’t stop himself from turning his head to watch Tsume undress when he heard the rustle of leather. Tsume pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a muscular chest with a strange X-shaped scar across his breastbone. He pushed the leather pants off of his lean hips, bending over to remove his motorcycle boots. When he straightened up, Darcia noticed that he had several piercings. There was a gold hoop through one of his nipples, and a small emerald stud set into his navel.

Darcia couldn’t help but let his eyes travel down further to Tsume’s groin. His pubic hair was silvery, like the bristly hair on his head. His cock was erect, a thick organ that curved upward slightly. The sight of it made the bound man on the bed feel rather peculiar. He dragged his eyes away, as Tsume scratched lightly at his stomach with one hand.

There was a few moments of silence, and Darcia looked back at Tsume again to see what he was doing. Tsume had turned around and stood with his hands on his hips, looking at a picture hanging on the far wall. It was one that Darcia had liked on sight, an oil painting of wolves hunting on an ice floe. When he saw Tsume’s back, he gave a soft gasp at the magnificent tattoo that covered nearly its entire surface.

A brilliantly-colored bird unfurled its wings upward. The tips of the wings reached nearly to Tsume’s shoulders. Its tail curled down to the base of his spine. The bird’s plumage was red, yellow, orange and blue, and Darcia realized after a moment what it was. A phoenix rose up the smooth skin of Tsume’s back, looking as though it would burst out of the skin at any moment and fly away to freedom.

“Why a Phoenix?” Darcia asked curiously, although somehow the image seemed appropriate.

Tsume turned his head to meet Darcia’s eyes. “Rebirth,” he replied simply. “Freedom. Rising from the ashes of your old life. All of those symbols seemed right to me.”

“To be reborn,” Darcia mused. “I think I would like to do that. To leave behind all that I am.”

“It’s easy,” Tsume said, turning around to walk over to the bed. “You just have to decide to do it, and then do it.”

“So simple,” Darcia murmured sarcastically.

“It can be,” Tsume stopped by the side of the bed and considered Darcia with his light gold eyes. He raised his eyes to Darcia’s. “Are you ready?”

“For what?” Darcia asked, narrowing his eyes a bit. “We’ve got bondage - what next? Spanking? Humiliation? Or some other perversion?”

Tsume merely smiled slightly as he climbed onto the bed. “No. Now I make you want me.”

Darcia snorted elegantly. “A challenge, I think. Give it your best shot.”

“I intend to,” Tsume replied.

Tsume moved to straddle Darcia’s lean waist. He set his hands on either side of the man, and looked down into his challenging stare. Then he bent at the waist and kissed Darcia full on the mouth. Darcia did not respond to the kiss, and refused point blank to open his mouth when Tsume tried to push his tongue between his lips. Tsume leaned back with a frown, as Darcia gave him a cool stare.

Tsume shrugged. If that’s the way he wanted it…He put out his hand and pinched Darcia’s nostrils closed. Darcia reared his head back, but Tsume maintained his implacable grip. At last, he had no choice but to open his mouth with a gasp, so that he could draw in a much needed breath. The moment he did so, Tsume claimed his mouth again in a deep kiss.

Darcia considered biting the tongue that had invaded his mouth, but he thought Tsume might retaliate harshly if he tried it. So he allowed Tsume’s tongue to sweep into his mouth, and tried to shut out the sensations it stirred in him. He closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the slight shiver of desire that coursed through him when Tsume’s tongue glided over the roof of his mouth.

When Tsume drew back, Darcia closed his mouth. Tsume leaned down and ran his tongue boldly over Darcia’s kiss-swollen lips. Then he straightened up to his sitting position once more, and reached down to splay his fingers across Darcia’s chest. Darcia could feel the heat of Tsume’s fingers against his skin, nearly burning. Tsume locked eyes with him, as he slid his hands in slow circles over Darcia’s chest. When he reached the small, pale-pink nipples, he smiled slightly as he pinched them in his fingers and twisted them softly.

Darcia felt a mild burst of pain, and also a burst of heat that flashed toward his groin. He gritted his teeth against the small moan that tried to escape from his throat. Tsume’s lips quirked in a wolfish smile, as he confirmed that he’d found one of Darcia’s sensitive spots. He used his thumbs to stroke over the now jutting nipples over and over again, and Darcia could only pull uselessly at the makeshift cords that bound him as he felt his cock stir to life between his legs.

Tsume bared his teeth as he leaned over Darcia again. He bit at the skin of that elegant white neck, and then licked the bitten spot with his long agile tongue. Darcia’s hips bucked upward a bit in an unconscious reflex at the feel of Tsume’s teeth and tongue moving down his neck in a trail. A soft gasp was torn from his throat as Tsume arrived at his collarbone and nipped at it sharply.

Tsume put out his tongue and ran it in a line down Darcia’s breastbone all the way to his navel, scooting backward as he did so until he was straddling Darcia’s upper thighs. He could feel Darcia’s half-hard cock beginning to harden even more as it rubbed against his stomach. He dipped his tongue into Darcia’s navel, causing the tall man’s hips to jerk again.

Tsume smirked against Darcia’s soft skin as he moved ever downward towards his groin. He thrust out his tongue and made small circles on Darcia’s lower stomach, feeling the muscles jerk under him from the sensation. He raised his eyes while still licking Darcia’s skin, and saw that Darcia had turned his head to the side as though to cut himself off from what was happening to his body.

'Not for long,' Tsume thought. He slid a bit lower, and took Darcia’s elegant cock in his hand. It still wasn’t fully erect, but it jerked and thickened as Tsume ran his tongue over the sensitive tip delicately. Lowering his head, he swirled his tongue along the length of Darcia’s erection until he reached his own hand. A small sound was torn from Darcia’s throat, and his hips lifted a bit to offer his now fully-hard cock to Tsume’s skilled mouth.

Tsume sucked Darcia’s length into his mouth, moving his head up and down as he watched Darcia through his lashes. The man was trying hard to detach himself from the pleasure that he was experiencing, but he was unable to fully do so. His head went back a bit, and his mouth opened, as Tsume lightly bit the soft skin of his cock. The pleasure/pain combination was mind blowing. Tsume knew that, because he’d had this done to his own cock in the past.

He reached down between Darcia’s legs with his other hand and palmed his balls, rolling them in his skilled fingers. Darcia made a sound rather like a whimper as Tsume squeezed with a delicate pressure not designed to harm him but to bring him another flash of pleasure/pain. He knew what Darcia needed, what he wanted. Not real pain, but something just this side of it. It would help Darcia to loosen his control, to give it up and just feel.

Releasing his balls, Tsume slid a finger lower down and began to make teasing circles around Darcia’s anus. He prodded the ring of muscle carefully, stimulating the sensitive skin and nerves. He gave a final lick to Darcia’s cock ,which was leaking precum from the tip. He then released it from his mouth, which made Darcia give a small sound of protest. He laid his head on Darcia’s thigh as he pushed the tip of his finger, wetted with his saliva, into his anus. He moved his finger in circles as he turned his head a bit and licked the soft skin of his thigh lazily.

Darcia stared up at the ceiling. He sometimes jerked at the restraining bonds, and he couldn’t stop the soft moans and gasps that were literally ripped from his throat by Tsume’s ministrations. It was almost unbearable, this loss of control. He could do nothing. He was helpless to stop the amazing things being done to him by the silver haired man sprawled across his legs. He felt not only a jolt of pleasure as Tsume probed deeper into his ass with his finger, but also a jolt of fear. He hated to feel that there was nothing he could do in any situation. Especially one this intimate.

Tsume was aware of what Darcia was thinking. He could feel how tense his muscles had become, as he fought against both the physical restraints and his own mental submission. He didn’t want to give in to Tsume. But he would - he would. He wouldn’t be able to help himself. The alpha male smiled to himself as he sucked a bruise out of the tender skin of Darcia’s inner thigh as he pushed his finger all the way into him.

Darcia made a small sound of pain as Tsume’s finger surged into him. Tsume began to thrust it in and out of him, stroking his inner walls with his sensitive fingertip. At the same time, he leaned down and took one of Darcia’s balls into his mouth. He sucked lightly on it as he continued to push his finger into Darcia’s tight, hot opening. The sucking on his balls would distract Darcia from what was being done to his ass.

Darcia fought back a groan as Tsume’s warm mouth enclosed one of his balls tightly. Tsume began to lick and mouth it, rolling it between his teeth and tongue. After a moment, he added a second finger in Darcia’s ass. He heard no sound of complaint or protest, because Darcia was too busy with the feel of Tsume’s mouth on him. He began to flex his fingers inside of him, opening him up. At the same time, he searched for the spot that would literally blow the raven haired man’s mind.

When he found it, he released Darcia from his mouth so that the only thing he’d feel was the pleasure when Tsume stimulated his prostate gland. He fixed his eyes on Darcia’s face when he used his fingertips to sharply prod the spot. Darcia cried out, his head going back, his hips jerking, unable to stop himself. His cock twitched as a surge of pleasure rushed through him. Rather wildly, he brought his head down to his chest so that he could stare at Tsume with slightly widened eyes.

“What was that?” he gasped, struggling to speak. 

Tsume smirked a bit as he abruptly stroked the same spot again. Darcia jerked against the restraints furiously, his cry this time loud and unmodulated. “That was your prostate gland,” Tsume replied after a moment.

“D-don’t do that again,” gasped Darcia, his teeth bared in a near snarl. He felt absolutely helpless against the wild pleasure that coursed through him every time Tsume prodded his prostate. He hated how it made him feel, even as he loved it.

“I don’t think that you have a say in the matter,” Tsume pointed out calmly. He flexed his fingers again, drawing a near scream from the man who was now beginning to writhe on the bed.

Tsume took the opportunity to add a third finger to the ones opening him up. He thrust them in and out, finger fucking Darcia, although he refrained from touching his prostate again. Let him think that Tsume had given that pleasant activity up for now. It would only make it sweeter later when he fucked him and used his cock to do the same thing.

Even the fingers moving inside of him were beginning to feel pleasant. Darcia gritted his teeth as he tried to regain control of himself. But it was a wasted effort - Tsume had broken down the barriers within him, and he couldn’t rebuild them. He might have succeeded if Tsume had just continued to use only his fingers, but the silver haired man bent his head and began to suck on Darcia’s cock again at the same time. The feel of his teeth and tongue running over the sensitive tip was too much pleasure to let him concentrate on regaining control over himself.

Tsume pulled back when he felt that Darcia was about to come. He removed his fingers as well, pulling them out of his loosened asshole. He raised his head to look at Darcia’s face, which had flushed a dark pink color. Darcia’s chest rose and fell sharply with his quickened breathing, and his mismatched eyes were half glazed. He was far enough gone that he wasn’t thinking at all. Good.

Tsume rose up and turned around to loosen the knots that bound Darcia’s ankles to the bed. When Darcia felt the loosening of the cords, he assumed that Tsume would release his wrists as well. But Tsume had no intention of doing that. He turned around again and moved up Darcia’s body slowly, letting his skin rub against Darcia’s to create a pleasant friction.

When he was straddling Darcia’s groin, he put his hands on the bed on either side of Darcia’s waist and moved his hips so that their erections rubbed together. Darcia moaned at the sensation, fighting to try to think coherently enough to demand that Tsume removed the bindings around his wrists.

Tsume slid back a bit and lifted Darcia’s legs over his shoulders. Darcia opened his mouth to protest, to make demands, and Tsume thrust into him in a one smooth stroke before he could make a sound.

Darcia cried out in both pain and pleasure when Tsume’s thick cock slid into him. It felt as though he were being split in two, and the burning sensation that accompanied the feeling of fullness was uncomfortable. Tsume waited patiently, his hands on Darcia’s thighs, his eyes watching Darcia’s face intently. Darcia’s mouth was twisted in pain, his gaze turned inward as he sough to try to adjust to the intrusion into his body. Tsume waited for the signs that he had done so.

After a minute or so, he saw Darcia’s jaw relax as tension drained out of it. His eyelids fluttered half shut, and his fingers curled into the palms of his hands. Tsume felt the minute movement as Darcia’s hips lifted slightly. He was ready. Tsume pulled back a little, and thrust in again with the smallest of movements.

Darcia gasped softly when Tsume began to move inside of him. Slowly, carefully, Tsume began to thrust into him. The feeling was strange but not really painful anymore, and Darcia found himself wanting to move as well. Instinctively he began to lift his hips in time to Tsume’s exquisitely timed thrusts, moaning quietly at the friction being caused between them. His eyes closed as the sensations built within him, and he panted and gasped as he jerked against the wrist restraints rhythmically.

Tsume loved the feel of his cock sinking into Darcia’s hot, tight ass. He enjoyed the sight of the pale, cold man turning flushed and hot under him, of watching Darcia struggled to breathe as he writhed against the restraints. He picked up the pace of his thrusting, his hips beginning to slap against Darcia’s ass as he surged into him harder and harder.

It was time to really blow the beautiful man’s mind, Tsume thought. He slid his hands down so that he could lift Darcia’s ass. Tilting him up a bit, he angled his thrusts so that his cock would strike his prostate. He pushed in extra hard, the tip of his erection ran over that spot, and Darcia screamed in surprised pleasure as his whole body convulsed. His head went back, and he would have ripped the ties in two if they’d been made from a less sturdy material. Tsume repeated his action again and again, turning the man writhing under him into a mindless animal. There was no restraint now, no control, and Darcia bucked and screamed his pleasure just as Tsume had known he would.

Tsume could feel his own orgasm approaching, brought on by the erotic sight of the beautiful man losing himself to passion. He slid one of his hands up to grab Darcia’s cock and stroke it harshly in time to his driving thrusts. Once, twice, three times…and then Darcia threw himself upward, his whole body straining, a wild scream of pleasure ripped from his throat as he came. Semen spilled out over his stomach and Tsume’s fingers, as every one of his muscles seemed to seize up simultaneously.

Tsume growled low in his throat as he thrust into Darcia one last time. The stranglehold that the man’s internal muscles had on him dragged his orgasm out of him, and he bared his teeth in feral pleasure as he came inside of the shuddering man. He panted lightly as he came down from the fabulous high, Darcia’s legs still over his shoulders. He lifted his head to look down on the still figure sprawled on the bed before him.

Darcia’s eyes were open, but they looked almost blank. Breath still huffed in and out of his chest as he fought for air, and his hair was plastered to the sides of his face with sweat. He looked sexy and wild, not a trace of the cold, contained man he’d been half an hour ago remaining. Tsume smiled a little to himself. It had been a challenge to reduce Darcia to a mindless, sex driven animal, but it had definitely been worth it. It had been one of the best fucks that Tsume had ever had. Maybe THE best.

Tsume pushed himself up with a groan, pulling out of Darcia. The raven haired man made a small sound, almost a whimper, as he did so. Tsume slid off the bed and walked forward to reach down and release the first of Darcia’s bonds. His wrist was red and rather chafed from all the pulling against the restraints that he’d done. He let his wrist fall limply onto the bed spread once Tsume untied it. He continued to stare rather blankly at the ceiling as Tsume circled the bed to undo the other one.

Tsume padded off to the attached Master bathroom and returned with moistened towel. He cleaned Darcia up carefully, making the man give small noises as the towel ran over his sensitized skin. Tsume dropped the towel carelessly on the floor and put out his hands to lift Darcia to a sitting position. The parti-colored eyes were finally stirring back to life as Tsume helped him to stand up.

Darcia stood quietly, swaying a bit, as Tsume pulled back the covers on the bed. He raised his brows a bit to see silk sheets. Not what he’d have expected from someone like Darcia. But then, the man had shown other unexpected traits tonight. Tsume found himself becoming more and more interested in this familiar stranger.

He urged Darcia to get into the bed, then crawled in after him and pulled the covers up over them both. He pulled Darcia’s long body against his own, garnering no protests from the shell shocked man. Darcia sighed as Tsume curled his hand around the back of his head in a surprisingly affectionate, possessive gesture.

Silence fell over them both for a time. Then, just as Tsume was beginning to slide into sleep, Darcia spoke. “I think that I could hate you” he said tiredly.

“Why?”

“Because you…made me feel things I’ve never felt before. Things that I am not at all sure that I want to feel. You’ve torn me apart. How do I put myself back together?”

Tsume nuzzled his nose into Darcia’s hair in a wolfish gesture of comfort. “Seems to me you were already torn apart,” he said quietly. “Having sex and feeling good don’t have anything to do with it. I mean, how screwed up do you have to be to be afraid of simply enjoying yourself, because you’re afraid that it’ll make you fall into pieces?”

Darcia’s drew in a sharp breath. “You’re right,” he replied grimly. “so right. What do I do now?”

Tsume yawned as he closed his eyes. His hand stroked Darcia’s hair soothingly. “Sleep,” he said.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsume helps Darcia find his true nature

Tsume dreamed. In the dream, he struggled with a gigantic walrus on an ice floe. He heard voices cry out his name, and then a streak of russet colored fur flew past him. A slim young wolf threw himself at the creature’s head, digging his fangs into its eye. The walrus reared back furiously, lifting the young wolf high in the air. He clung on tenaciously, refusing to let go as the mammoth walrus went over backwards into the icy water, taking the young wolf with it.

Tsume screamed a name. “Toboe!” he cried, even as Kiba and Hige cried out behind him. The water churned up and then stilled, and Tsume felt horror run through him. The cub had thrown himself on the beast to save Tsume. He ran to the edge of the ice floe and stared down into the water, and a howl of grief bubbled up in his throat…

“Tsume?” a voice called. It wasn’t Kiba’s soft tones or Hige’s laughing voice. Tsume ignored it as he bent over to stare into the deep, cold water that had swallowed Toboe.

“Tsume!” the deep, rich voice prodded at him again. Tsume whirled around in a fury, angry that the voice was distracting him from looking for Toboe. Standing on the ice floe was a man that Tsume recognized, but who wasn’t part of the pack. He was tall, with long dark hair and eyes that were two different colors. Oddly enough, in spite of the cold he was stark naked.

“Tsume” this man said, holding out his hand. “You’re dreaming. Wake up”

Dreaming? Tsume frowned at the familiar stranger. What did he mean? They were on the ice, journeying north, he and Kiba and Hige and the cub. He looked over at the place where his two companions had stood, and the ice was empty. They were gone. He felt panic run through him. “No!” he cried, whirling around to search the empty ice desperately. They couldn’t be gone!

“Tsume!” barked the man with the parti-colored eyes. “Wake up! Now!” and Tsume felt a sharp pain on his face, as he abruptly awoke with the sting from Darcia’s slap still tingling on his cheek.

His light golden eyes snapped open. Darcia was sitting up in bed next to him, leaning over him with his black hair falling in a curtain around them. There was concern in his strange mismatched eyes. Are you all right?” he asked.

Tsume frowned. “Of course I am.” He sat up, putting a hand to his head as he waited for his brain to settle down.

Then Darcia spoke again, and shattered his world into little pieces. “Tsume? Who is Toboe?”

“What!?” Tsume’s head whipped around as he stared wildly at the man sitting next to him.

“You called out a name in your sleep. Toboe. Who is Toboe?”

Tsume gasped. A whirling vortex of memories rose up to consume his mind. He clutched at his head as the past came rushing back to him like a tidal wave. He saw everything-the dying world, his human gang, a wounded white wolf with golden eyes, a fierce struggle, a laughing young boy with a collar around his neck, a frightened cub with big brown eyes, a flower girl who would lead them all to their destiny, soldiers, an old hunter with his black dog/wolf, a human detective and his scientist ex-wife, a tall beautiful, mad Noble who was part wolf and had one golden eye and one royal purple…

Everything. Tsume moaned as his brain was flooded with images. Sights, sounds, smells - it felt as though he were going mad as he struggled to take it all in. He dimly heard a voice calling his name. But he couldn’t answer; he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the mental overload taking place within his mind. He wanted to scream, to howl in agony. Memories of the wolf overlaid newer human memories. Tsume knew what it was to have fur, to run on all fours, to howl at the moon. He knew what it was to be able to see the world through his nose as well as his eyes. He felt how it had been to be pack, to run with his brothers in the hunt. He remembered curling up in the warmth of other furry bodies, nose to tail, while he dreamed of running endlessly and joyfully under the touch of a flower girl’s gentle hand.

Tsume came back to himself an indeterminate time later. He was changed, different, but he was also still himself. Regaining his lost memories had simply washed away the loneliness and feelings of displacement that had haunted him for so long. He knew who he was, and who he had been, and he opened his eyes to gaze into a pair of worried mismatched eyes.

“Tsume?” Darcia asked uncertainly, furrowing his brows. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine” Tsume replied serenely. “I’m just fine”

“Did you…remember something?” Darcia said, studying Tsume’s face. He could see the changes in him, although he couldn’t yet be sure what they were.

Tsume nodded. “Everything” he said almost reverently. “I remembered everything”

Darcia gasped. He put his hand on Tsume’s arm urgently. “Please tell me. I must know” he demanded desperately.

Tsume sighed. He wasn’t sure that Darcia would find any happiness or closure with the memories of him that Tsume had in his head. But he deserved to know, just the same. So he began to tell Darcia t he story of their past, and he watched the former Noble’s face as he talked. He saw his lips thin when he explained about the Darcia family, those who had genetically engineered the Moon Flower women and been almost destroyed in a war with another of the Noble families. He told him of Cheza and the mad Noblewoman who was sister to the flower woman whom Darcia had loved, who wanted to use Cheza to bring about a Nobles Paradise and who claimed that she did it for love of Darcia himself. He explained how, at the End of the World, Darcia had found a way to take on wolf form and had fought them all to stop the coming of the new world. When he was done, Darcia sat with narrowed eyes and closed face as he took in everything Tsume had told him.

“So I was mad” Darcia said at last, slowly. “Alone, and mad. Perhaps things haven’t changed that much, even in this new world” and he looked away, the pain that ate at him obvious in every line of his body.

Tsume growled softly. Remembering how Darcia had tried to kill them, how he’d taken Cheza and fought them at the end, should have perhaps made him angry or given him an urge to take revenge. But revenge was a human concept, and the wolf in him saw Darcia not as a former enemy but as a half wolf struggling to come to terms with his own loneliness and his dual natures. Tsume remembered what it had been like to be alone, stranded in a society he couldn’t quite fit into, not human but with no kin or pack. He could remember his secret joy at having a pack once again, of belonging once more. Darcia had never had that joy, had never had a place that he belonged or anyone that he belonged to. No wonder he’d gone mad in that other world.

Tsume slid his arms around Darcia. He felt Darcia stiffen in shock as he nuzzled his nose into the silky black hair. He drew in a deep breath, taking in the man’s scent. His human nose wasn’t as sharp as his wolf’s had been, but he could still faintly smell his personal scent. It smelled good. Here was a member of his pack, one who belonged to him. He bit into the tender skin at the juncture of Darcia’s neck and shoulder, marking him with his teeth. He heard Darcia gasp at the sharp pain, and he tasted blood in his mouth. He drew his teeth back and began to lick the wound soothingly, and the man in his arms moaned softly.

“What are you doing?” Darcia asked, his body trembling faintly. Tsume tightened his arms around him. “Mine” he growled in reply.

“What?” Darcia sounded faintly frightened, but also almost hopeful.

“Mine” Tsume said again, beginning to lap at the side of Darcia’s elegant neck. “You’re mine. Pack.”

“Nooo…” it came out as a descending moan, a denial without conviction.

“Yes” Tsume insisted. He nipped at the side of Darcia’s jaw.

Darcia began to shake, his muscles spasming as he fought against Tsume’s words and his own desperate yearnings. “Please…” he moaned, not sure why he was begging or what he was begging for.

“Mine” growled Tsume in his ear, his voice implacable. “Pack.”

“Ahhh” Darcia threw his head back as the pain that coiled at the center of his very being burst outward and seemed to flame behind his eyes. He felt wracked, torn apart, his two natures struggling against one another in open conflict. The wolf in him knew the truth of Tsume’s words, and prodded him to bend his neck in acceptance. The human part of him lashed out in fear against something so strange and terrifying.

Tsume felt the man he held stiffen as the conflict raged within him. He sensed that Darcia needed help to win the battle. So he put up one hand and pulled the long swathe of raven black hair away from his neck, and bit down hard on the back of Darcia’s neck. Once his teeth sank in, he growled low in his throat, so that the vibration of it carried into his body.

The sound of that growl went through every part of Darcia’s being. He went still, passive, the wolf in him recognizing the dominant male. This was his Pack Leader. The human part of him protested uselessly against the force of animal instincts. The wolf in Darcia knew that it was where it belonged, and its surrender was complete and total. There was no way that his human nature could fight against such an unshakable KNOWING. It gave up the ghost with a sigh, and melded at last with the wolf nature in a completion that reformed Darcia into a new whole.

Darcia slumped in Tsume’s arms, unmoving, his head bent forward on his chest. Only the soft sound of his breathing told the man holding him that he still lived. Tsume waited patiently, resting his chin atop Darcia’s head, his eyes far away as he thought about the memories that had returned to him. Learning that he had been a wolf in the old world, strangely enough, did not make him yearn to return to that form. He accepted, with a wolf’s simple understanding, that there was no going back. He was human now, and longing for what you could not have was the best way to drive yourself mad with frustration. He would learn to live as a human with a wolf’s soul inside of him.

It helped that the man he held onto so tightly understood his predicament. Darcia struggled under the same conflicting natures, trying to reconcile the wolf and the human within him. Together they’d find a way to balance the two. To have a pack again, even one that consisted only of the two of them, made Tsume feel an amazing sense of peace within himself.

Darcia stirred against him, opening dazed eyes. Tsume tilted his head to look down into those mismatched orbs. “Are you all right?” he asked Darcia gently.

“I...” Darcia’s voice wavered. He shook his head as though to clear it. “I feel as though I’ve just been put through a blender” he said hoarsely.

Tsume nuzzled the side of his neck affectionately. “You need to relax. Let’s go take a hot shower” he coaxed the still faintly trembling man out of bed and led him into the huge, rather antiseptic looking bathroom.

Tsume steered Darcia into the white tiled shower. He went with an unnatural passivity that worried Tsume a bit. He turned on the water and let it get to just below the point of scalding, then pushed Darcia under it suddenly. The raven haired man yelped in startlement and pain at the sudden flow of very hot water all over his body. It was impossible for him to remain in the semi-catatonic state that he’d been in under this assault, and he whipped around with sudden energy to glare at Tsume.

Tsume leaned his hip against the frame of the shower door. He only smiled at the ire being directed at him. Darcia glared uselessly for a moment, then turned away and gave Tsume his back in a haughty, eloquent gesture. Tsume chuckled as he walked into the shower fearlessly to join Darcia under the steaming hot water.

Darcia jumped a bit as strong arms slid around him. He wasn’t used to being touched at all, and Tsume’s near constant contact with some part of him was both upsetting and (strangely) re-assuring him at the same time. Tsume licked Darcia’s shoulder blade, causing him to both relax and become aroused at the same time.

Becoming aware of both effects of his action, Tsume repeated it several more times. Darcia moaned softly, his legs nearly giving way as he slumped backward in Tsume’s arms. The silver haired man held him up easily, turning his head to lap at the forming bruise where he’d marked Darcia earlier.

One of Tsume’s arms left Darcia’s waist and shot out sideways to scoop up a bottle of shampoo off the shower rack. He opened the cap one handed, and squirted some of the scented herbal shampoo onto the long raven black hair. Then he massaged the shampoo into Darcia’s long hair with his fingers, making the man he held almost go cross eyed from the pleasure of Tsume’s strong fingers massaging his scalp. He moaned softly as Tsume finished lathering his hair and then urged him fully under he spray so that he could rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

When the last of the shampoo had been washed out, Tsume picked up a bottle of moisturizing hand soap and began to lather up Darcia’s long body patiently. The feel of his hands caressing in circles as he cleaned his skin was enough to make Darcia almost lose his mind. He was rock hard, and his skin felt ultra sensitive under Tsume’s clever, insidious fingers. He was panting by the time Tsume was finished, and his eyes were glazed with lust.

Tsume turned him around to make sure that all of the soap was washed away. Then he pushed him up against the tile wall, which made Darcia gasp in surprise. He put his hands flat against the tile and looked over his shoulder at Tsume, who was coating his hand with the soap. He opened his mouth to speak, but a low moan was the only thing that came out as one of Tsume’s soap slicked fingers slid inside of him. He moved the finger inside of Darcia, stroking over the still rather sore tissue, opening him up.

Darcia rested his head against the tile and stood still as Tsume prepped him. An occasional groan was his only reaction as Tsume worked three fingers inside of him. But he jumped and cried out loudly when Tsume used his fingertips to stroke his prostate sharply. His head tilted back in pleasure, and was only barely aware that Tsume had removed his fingers and was coating his cock with the rest of the soap on his hand.

Knowing that Darcia would be sore after last night, Tsume didn’t thrust himself all the way inside of him in one move as he had before. Instead, he pushed the tip of himself into Darcia slowly, while the raven haired man moaned and closed his eyes as he gripped at the tile in front of him. Then he paused for a moment, giving his partner time to adjust to the feel. When he saw Darcia’s back muscles relax, Tsume pushed more of himself inside. Bit by bit, he worked himself into Darcia’s tight ass. When he was fully seated, he stopped again.

Darcia panted and gasped as he tried to adjust to the feel of Tsume’s thick cock inside of him. He felt warmth and some pressure as Tsume leaned over his back and put his hands on the wall on either side of Darcia’s. The skin of Tsume’s chest rubbed against his back as the silver haired man licked at the side of his neck, and then delicately bit his earlobe. Darcia groaned loudly, jerking his hips instinctively. Tsume took this as a sign that he wanted movement, and began to thrust in and out of him slowly.

The two men went through the age old dance together, and Tsume’s groans were a counterpoint to Darcia’s low moans and gasps. Tsume picked up the pace of his thrusting as one of his hands left the wall and traveled down to begin pinching and twisting one of Darcia’s’ pale pink nipples. The former Noble cried out wildly as the man behind him angled his thrusts to hit his prostate, at the same time as his fingers tweaked his nipple almost painfully. An explosion was gathering in his loins, and he threw his head back and screamed as one particularly hard thrust brought him to orgasm. He came against the tile wall as Tsume thrust into him several more times before he, too, came with a groan.

Shuddering, Darcia leaned heavily on the wall as Tsume slid out of him. His legs were threatening to buckle under him. Tsume gathered him up again; letting him lean back against his powerful form as the water swirled over both of them and washed away the last traces of their coupling. Darcia’s head rested back against Tsume’s shoulder. His brain was blank, pulped by the power of his orgasm and the mental struggle that had preceded it. He found himself content to rest where he was, while Tsume held him with one hand and cleaned himself up with the other.

Afterwards, Tsume urged him back into the bedroom. He sat him on the edge of the bed and wandered over to the armoire again, fetching two of Darcia’s robes from its interior. He slung one on carelessly, and then brought the other to the man still sitting on the edge of the bed. He draped it over Darcia’s shoulders, and the former Noble very slowly shrugged into it. He belted it at the waist, looking up at Tsume as he did so. Tsume answered his silent question. “I’m starving”’ he said. “And while I don’t care, I’m sure you don’t want to shock your servants by asking for breakfast naked.”

Darcia could see the logic in that. And he found that he was very hungry, as well. So he got up and went to the intercom on the wall, buzzing down to the kitchen and requesting breakfast for two to be sent up to his room. He could almost hear the puzzled, rather shocked silence at the other end, before the cook said “Yes, Mr. Darcia. Right away.” He clicked off the intercom with a smile that was part grimace. Just wait until his staff saw the gender of his guest. They just thought they were shocked now.

He turned to find Tsume sprawled across the bed, looking more like a cat than a wolf. He hadn’t bothered to belt his robe, and Darcia could see the rolling muscles on his chest and the glittering emerald in his navel. He smiled lazily at Darcia, rubbing one of his hands in a circle on his stomach. Darcia looked hurriedly away, horrified by the stirrings of arousal he felt just at the sight of Tsume, despite what they had just done in the shower together.

He went over to the windows and stood looking out at the grounds below. He wrapped his arms over his chest as he said: “Tsume?”

“Yeah?”

“What will you do now that you have your memories back?”

“I’ll try to find the others. Kiba, Hige, Toboe. Maybe even Blue. If you made it into this new world, most likely she did too. They must be out there somewhere.”

Darcia tightened his arms around himself. “And then you’ll have your pack back” he said softly, staring blindly out the window.

“Correction. WE’LL have our pack” Tsume rumbled. Darcia turned his head to look at the man still draped on his bed. “What do you mean?”

Tsume met him stare for stare. “I told you. You are mine. You are part of my pack.”

Darcia shook his head, turning away sharply. “I am not…” he began.

Tsume moved so fast that he took the man standing by the window by surprise. Strong arms closed around him in a vise hold, and Tsume’s voice growled in his ear, “You can’t deny it. Don’t try”

Darcia fought the trembling in his body. “But…” he began, still trying to deny the yearnings inside of himself as well as Tsume’s words.

“No buts. You belong to me” Tsume’s voice was like steel. He thrust Darcia’s hair away from his neck so that he could begin to nibble on that elegant expanse. “Just accept it” he said more softly.

“Ahh” Darcia gasped. He wanted to deny what was happening to him, to close himself off away from it. But he could not. Tsume would not let him. Much as part of him wished desperately to be claimed by the man who held him, to have someone to belong to, another part struggled just as desperately to deny his own needs. He had lived too long cut off from love, affection, and human contact.

Tsume growled against his neck. He sensed Darcia trying to pull away, to distance himself as he had tried last night to cut himself off from the pleasure he was feeling. He would not allow that, any more than he had allowed him to pull away last night. He knew the best way to keep Darcia focused within himself. His hands slid down and unknotted the tie on Darcia’s belt. Darcia gasped in surprise as Tsume’s hard hand closed around his cock and began to stroke him with a firm touch. He moaned as he came to life under Tsume’s touch, and he shuddered lightly as Tsume sucked on his ear.

Darcia’s hips began to rock as Tsume stroked him steadily. Tsume said insistently “Admit it. You’re mine.”

Darcia threw his head back. “Please” he begged breathlessly, again not sure why he was pleading. Tsume’s hand tightened on him just enough that it was almost pain, and he groaned. “Admit it” Tsume’s voice ground through him, coaxing, commanding. His hand never stopped moving, as he pushed Darcia harder.

Darcia felt almost mindless. Between Tsume’s voice and his hand, he was being driven into looking into his very soul and seeing the truth that resided there. He opened his mouth, and gasped out what he’d known inside of himself ever since Tsume had first claimed him. “I’m yours!” he cried loudly, then he cried out again as he came all over Tsume’s hand.

“Good” Tsume purred, holding him up as his legs quivered with his coming. He raised his hand to his lips and began to lick Darcia’s come off of his hand in a leisurely fashion.

Darcia felt strange. Now that he’d admitted the truth, the wolf part of his soul had relaxed. He could feel its silent approval. The human part was bewildered, uncertain, but oddly accepting. A strong sense of peace was stealing over him, and he closed his eyes and relaxed into Tsume’s arms. He felt Tsume nuzzle his hair gently, and felt, for the first time in either of his lives, a sense of belonging that shook him to his core. Two crystalline tears ran slowly down his face. They were not tears of grief, or of pain. They were tears of happiness, as the aching loneliness within him disappeared without a trace.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsume and Darcia find peace in the aftermath of everything.

After breakfast (and the servants WERE shocked when they found their employer in his bedroom with a half naked man), Tsume got dressed and wandered through the house. The place was, to his mind, huge, cold and barren. He didn’t like it at all. It was no place for them to live. No wonder Darcia was so cold and withdrawn, if he had to live in this place all by himself. When he returned to the Master Suite, he found Darcia dressed and brushing out his now dry hair.

Tsume walked over and took the brush from his hand. He took up the task himself, running the brush with long strokes over the silky fall of blue-black hair. Darcia leaned back and enjoyed the oddly erotic sensation of someone else grooming him. He closed his eyes, soothed by the motion of Tsume’s hand and the brush.

“Darcia” Tsume said after a little time.

“Hmmm?” Darcia didn’t open his eyes as he replied.

“You should sell this house” Tsume said quietly.

Now Darcia did open his eyes, turning his head to look up at Tsume. “What?”

“This place is a mausoleum. I don’t know how you can stand to live in it. You should sell it and buy a house in the country.”

Darcia blinked up at him in confusion. “In the country? Why?”

“So that we’ll have space to run. Someplace near woods, if we can get it”

Darcia shook his head, bewildered. “We?”

Tsume cocked his head. “Yes, we. Our pack” he said, as though this explained everything.

Darcia felt a strange amalgamation of warmth and exasperation run through him. Tsume was so simple in his thinking that it never occurred to him that this whole situation was a little odd. He simply assumed that since they were pack, they would live together. Strangely, Darcia found the idea quite appealing. He had a sudden image of a comfortable house in the country, with room for a rose garden where he could potter around and grow hybrids. He’d always loved flowers.

“That sounds…rather appealing” he said slowly. Tsume nodded. He resumed brushing Darcia’s hair as though the matter was settled, which in a peculiar sort of way it was. Darcia felt an odd sense of unreality come over him, but it was a pleasant feeling so he didn’t try to analyze it too much.

He went downstairs to his study and called the Vice President of his company. He could feel echoes of the past in the fact that his company mainly specialized in genetic engineering projects. When his Second-in-Command’s voice answered the phone, he explained to her that he was considering selling his house and moving out of the city. Since she did most of the day to day running of the company already, he’d be able to work at home for the most part. She was surprised, but she also sounded rather pleased for him. Darcia found it curious that she cared enough about him to be interested in his happiness. There was far more warmth in his voice than normal when he bid her good-bye and hung up the phone.

After that, he called a realtor and started the ball rolling. He explained to the realtor that he’d be looking for another residence while his house was on the market, and that he’d be moving out as soon as he found something suitable. The man gave him the name of a woman who might be able to help him find a nice place in the country, and Darcia called her immediately afterwards. She had a pleasant, helpful sounding voice, and she set up appointments for him and Tsume to look at six or seven houses over the next week. Thanking her, Darcia hung up the phone again and sat at his desk with his hands folded while he considered the amazing pace of events. He’d met Tsume in the club no more than twelve hours ago and already the silver haired man had shaken up his entire life and changed it completely. He felt numb from the speed and severity of the change occurring around and within him.

The door opened as he was brooding, and Tsume wandered into the room. His hands were in his pockets, and he looked relaxed and calm. But then, he would. He didn’t suffer under the doubts and insecurities that haunted Darcia. He was secure in his place in the world and sure of himself. How the man sitting behind his desk wished that he could have that utter surety about things.

Tsume stopped and tilted his head a bit as he studied Darcia’s face. He could see that the other man was thinking again, most likely trying to analyze something that couldn’t be grasped logically. He walked over behind the desk and put his hands on Darcia’s shoulders, leaning down as he whispered in his ear: “Don’t worry so much”

“Easy for you to say” grumbled Darcia without looking up.

Tsume chuckled. “Yeah, it is.” He buried his face in Darcia’s soft hair, breathing in his scent and rubbing his cheek against the silky strands. “There’s nothing to be scared of” he said gently.

“And who says I’m scared?” Darcia retorted tartly, turning his head to peer up at the man standing behind him out of his royal purple eye.

“I do” Tsume smiled down at him. He leaned over and lightly kissed Darcia’s mouth. “Everything will be fine” he said serenely when he lifted his head.

Darcia sighed. “I’ll take your word for it” he said.

 

The realtor was a small, plump woman with a friendly face and a rather ingratiating manner. She met them at the first of the potential properties that afternoon, and didn’t turn a hair at the well dressed man with the mane of hair down his back and the feral eyed leather clad man who were looking for a house together. She wouldn’t have cared if they were three headed aliens as long as she got her commission.

The first house she showed them was too small, and neither liked the location. There were houses fairly close on both sides, and the garden was miniscule. The realtor saw almost immediately that they didn’t like it, and took them on to the next one. This one was more promising, with a large fenced in yard and a two story white A frame farm house. The shrewd woman noticed almost immediately that the man who resembled a biker seemed to be in charge, and she sought his good opinion assiduously. She led them through the house, and when they got into the back yard she saw the leather clad man walk a few paces outside and begin to sniff the air thoughtfully.

The tall man with the oddly colored eyes watched the other man to see what he thought. The realtor had taken to watching him, too, and so they both saw him shrug a bit and turn towards them with a small frown on his lean face. “What is it?” the well dressed man asked quietly.

The silver haired man frowned. “It doesn’t smell right” he said, as if that was a good explanation for his apparent disapproval of the property.

It seemed to be enough for his companion, anyway. “All right. Could you show us another property?” he asked the realtor.

Astounded, the woman mentally shrugged as she thought about her commission. “Of course” she said. “There’s one I think that you’ll find charming and perfect for your needs. It just came onto the market a few weeks ago, and belonged to a wealthy eccentric until his death.”

The two men followed her car in a dark blue sports car, the tall black haired man driving. The one who resembled a biker slung his arm over the door of the car and lifted his head into the slip stream of air that flowed past the car. The realtor, seeing him in her rear view mirror, shook her head. It took all kinds, but this was the oddest couple that she’d ever dealt with, gay or straight. Still, if their money was good who was she to judge…

The house she wanted to show them was set back on its grounds, and she turned in at the gates and drove down a short driveway. She stopped her car and got out as the sports car pulled up behind her. In satisfaction she noted the interested look on the face of the silver haired man. He looked up at the house, which was a two story field stone structure with a slate roof. The many large windows had white painted frames and green shutters. A brass knocker in the shape of a green man decorated the dark green front door. Ivy and trumpet flowers climbed the walls in glorious profusion. The house looked peaceful in the early afternoon sunlight.

Darcia liked the house on sight. He looked at Tsume, and saw that he was interested in the house, too. He turned to the waiting realtor. "Could we see the inside?” he asked.

She nodded, pleased that both men seemed intrigued. She led them to the door and opened it with her key. Inside, they walked into a narrow front hall with doors leading off of it and a staircase leading up to the second floor. The realtor opened the first of the doors on the left, revealing a cozy looking study with a small fireplace and a built in bookshelves. Darcia imagined himself working in this space. He was pleased to see that the phone jack in the room had an internet connection.

The kitchen was a large room with a flagstone floor, an enormous island down the middle, and a massive fireplace that had once been used to roast whole pigs in. In contrast, the appliances were modern and the oak cabinets new. Tsume opened a white painted door on one wall and discovered an empty pantry.

There was a sitting room on the first floor, as well, it’s hard wood floor empty of either rugs or furniture. It had long French doors overlooking a green lawn that gave way to a flower garden. Massive trees flanked the lawn, their ancient trunks gnarled with age. And beyond the garden - Darcia saw Tsume come alert as he saw the misty green of the small woods that began a short way beyond the cultivated garden. The trees grew close together, and the shadows in between the trunks appeared deep and mysterious. Tsume’s muscles coiled eagerly, and he resembled a dog coming to point as he spotted his prey. Darcia knew that he longed to go out the doors and lope away into the woods.

”Are those woods attached to this property?” Darcia asked the realtor casually.

She nodded. “There are nearly forty acres of land that go with the house. The woods are maintained by a gamekeeper, because the gentleman who owned it liked to hunt pheasant and rabbits when he was younger.”

Tsume made a noise in the back of his throat that was almost a whine. The realtor shot him a startled look, and Darcia smiled. “Why don’t you show me the upstairs?” he said to the woman. “My friend will stay here and look at the garden.”

Darcia led the realtor away, and she was grateful to go with the civilized one. The leather clad man was acting so strangely that the woman wondered if he had some sort of mental problem. Tsume opened one of the doors as soon as the two had left the room, and walked out into the spring day with his eyes fixed on the woodland beyond the garden.

There were five bedrooms in the upstairs, with a large master Suite with an attached bathroom. The realtor showed Darcia the low, long half timbered attic that could be reached by a pull down staircase in the ceiling of the hallway. Two small dormer windows on either end provided the only light in the dusty space. Darcia shook his head at the thought that servants were once expected to sleep in this space, sometimes ten or fifteen altogether on narrow cots. No privacy and not much light. He himself had to hunch down so as not to hit his head on the low ceiling, and he was glad when they exited the attic.

Darcia had fallen in love with the house almost immediately. It seemed perfect for all their needs, and from Tsume’s reaction to the woods, he thought that he would agree with his assessment. He turned to the waiting woman, who was looking expectant. “We’ll have to wait for my friend to return, but I think that he’ll agree that it’s ideal. If he does, we’ll take it. I’ll be able to give you a check for the entire amount right away.”

The realtor reeled at his words. This man must be quite wealthy to be able to buy the property outright. Her commission was going to be quite large. She beamed at Darcia, and his lips quirked in a wry smile at her cheerful avarice.

It was some time before Tsume re-appeared. Darcia waited patiently in front of the house with the puzzled realtor, making desultory small talk with the woman. When Tsume finally walked around the side of the house, both parties sighed in relief at the sight of him. There was dirt on his boots, and a leaf was tangled in his short, bristly silver hair. His light golden eyes were absolutely mellow. Darcia smiled at the look on his face, knowing that the house was a done deal.

He turned to the realtor. “We’ll take it” he said, taking a checkbook out of the inner pocket of his suit. He wrote out the amount she named with a gold pen, and handed the check to the stunned woman. Tsume watched this transaction silently.

Darcia wasted little time. Over the next few days, he went into a whirlwind of activity. He let his servants go with excellent references and large bonuses, and had all the furniture in the vast mansion covered with dustsheets. He didn’t intend to take any of it with them, because Tsume didn’t like the stuff and he was frankly coming to realize that he didn’t like it much, either. Then he went to a furniture show room and some exclusive antiques shops and purchased furniture for the new house.

He insisted that Tsume come along to help him, although the silver haired man protested that he didn’t know anything about furniture. But Darcia wanted his input, and discovered to his surprise that Tsume had a good eye and good taste both. They picked out a large but comfortable looking bed of blonde wood with a headboard done in carvings of vines and flowers. Darcia bought a large cherry wood and oak desk for him new study, and Tsume decided on a guest chair of butter soft leather large enough for him to curl up in if he so chose. He had plans for that chair, and he eyed Darcia’s ass with a small smile on his face as the man paid for the chair.

They bought furnishings for the four other bedrooms upstairs, because Tsume pointed out that if he found the others, they might not be adverse to the idea of moving in with their former pack mate. Darcia wasn’t sure how happy he was with the notion of other people moving in with him and Tsume, but since he knew that it would make Tsume happy he accepted the idea with good grace.

He contacted a local employment agency and hired a housekeeper, a maid, a gardener and a cook. He didn’t think that Tsume knew how to cook(since he preferred his food raw, anyway), and he himself knew nothing about the culinary arts. He made sure that they started right away, since he and Tsume intended to move into the house as soon as it was habitable. He hired a moving company to transport the furniture, pictures, and ornaments that he’d bought to the house and get everything moved in. He and Tsume could move the furniture around until it was where they liked it later.

Tsume left all of the necessary tasks to Darcia. He knew that the other man was not only more skilled at the little details, he also needed something to do to occupy his mind. Not that he was averse to diverting his pack mate from brooding by fucking him senseless often and thoroughly. Darcia couldn’t think at all, let alone over think things, when he was bent over his desk with Tsume thrusting into him savagely from behind.

They moved into the house less than a week after buying it. Darcia set up his office in the cozy study, and Tsume started to convert the tool shed next to the covered garage into a work room where he could repair his bike or putter about working on an engine he was building from scratch. He spent hours almost every day out in the woods, returning in either a peaceful or decidedly horny mood. On the days when he strode in with the light of lust gleaming in his light gold eyes, Darcia was learning to anticipate and enjoy those afternoons. He found he didn’t mind abandoning whatever he was working on when Tsume would grab hold of him and begin to kiss him savagely. They seldom made it up to the bedroom, but they had sex on his desk, in the chair that Tsume had bought for just such a purpose, and on the rug in front of the fireplace. What the new servants thought of the noises coming out of the study they never said, because they were well paid and well treated by their new employer.

Darcia spend a part of each afternoon out on the garden. He and the new gardener planted the rose bushes he’d bought, and discussed fertilization, flower diseases and insects, and cross pollination as though they were contemplating the deepest secrets of the universe. Tsume left him to it, although he would sometimes walk through the garden breathing deeply of the scent. He, too, had a good reason for liking the smell of flowers.

At night, Tsume would curl himself around Darcia in the big bed and sleep with his head resting on the tall man’s shoulder. The former Noble was learning to appreciate being touched and caressed constantly by his silver haired lover, and even coming to need the contact. He was even learning to return the favor, and he found a peculiar satisfaction in hugging or nuzzling Tsume. He still wouldn’t bite Tsume in return when Tsume bit him, though. Tsume had coaxed him to do so, but he found that he couldn’t hurt Tsume even in a pleasant way. He was tired of causing pain, even pain that would make the other person feel lust. He himself loved the feel of Tsume’s teeth sinking into him, marking him as his possession. He’d taken to wearing shirts with turtlenecks to hide the bruises and teeth marks along his neck and shoulders. He sometimes suspected that the servants thought that Tsume might be abusing him, a thought which made him laugh. Tsume would never hurt him.

Some days, Tsume rode into the city on his bike to begin looking for his former pack mates. Darcia was torn between wanting to see his mate happy and a secret hope that he didn’t find any of them. He was enjoying his peaceful existence with Tsume too much to want to share it with anyone else. Perhaps later, when they’d had more time alone together, he’d be more amenable to the idea of sharing his house and his life with the other former wolves. Whenever Tsume returned empty handed from these trips, he breathed a sigh of relief shaded with disappointment for his lover.

One night, over a month after they’d moved into the house, Darcia lay in Tsume’s arms with his head resting in his chest. They were both sweaty from the vigorous bout of sex they’d just finished, and Darcia was feeling an almost overwhelming sense of belonging. This was the only place he wanted to be, ever again. As he felt Tsume’s nose nuzzle into his hair in the affectionate gesture he’d grown to love, he smiled against Tsume’s skin.

“Tsume” he said quietly.

“Hmmm?”

“Thank you.”

There was a pause. Then: “For what?” Tsume asked in genuine puzzlement.

Darcia laughed softly. "You don’t even know” he said wonderingly. “You don’t know what you’ve done for me. That makes it all the more precious.”

Tsume blinked down at his lover. Darcia’s words were a mystery to him. Darcia was part of his pack. Making him happy was simply a part of what being a Pack Leader encompassed. No Pack Leader could ever ignore or turn away from a member of his pack who was wounded or in pain. Physical pain, emotional, psychological - it was all the same to Tsume. One of his pack had needed help, and he’d given it. It was that simple, to the wolf soul that lived in Tsume’s human body.

“Tsume” Darcia spoke again after a short silence. “What will you do if you can’t ever find the others?” he tensed a bit as he asked this question, afraid it would hurt his silver haired lover.

Tsume sighed. “I’ll be sorry” he said, “Because I’d like to see them all again. But if I can’t find them, it’s all right. It doesn’t matter how small my pack is. As long as I’ve got one, I’ll be happy.”

Darcia relaxed as a surge of joy ran through him at Tsume’s quiet words. He’d greatly feared that Tsume would eventually become miserable if his search continued to be futile. To know that he, Darcia, was enough for Tsume to be happy left him feeling nearly giddy. The wolf in him pointed out that he’d always known that this was so, while the human part was ecstatic. He realized from Tsume’s soft breathing that his lover had gone to sleep. He laid his head on Tsume’s chest and listened to the rhythmic inhalations and exhalations, lulled into sleep himself by the peaceful sound. He closed his eyes, and his last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that he blessed the strange urge that had led him to go to a dance club one night, even though he didn’t dance.

The End


End file.
